I am concerned about Bruce Allen being in charge of player acquisition. At this point, he seems to be the default. Here's something I dug up from a Tampa newpaper from 2010.

TAMPA — Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer is right.

Whether you agree with his approach or not, it's hard to deny his basic premise that the team has drafted so poorly in recent years, it has had very few — if any — players worth re-signing to large contracts.

Take a look at the numbers.

The only player remaining from the 2004 draft is WR Michael Clayton, the Bucs' first-round pick whose career has gone south since his rookie year. The Bucs did re-sign Clayton last year to a five-year, $24 million contract with $10 million guaranteed. He rewarded them with 16 receptions.

The 2004 draft was the first under then-general manager Bruce Allen. The 2005 draft wasn't much better, netting only two starters from 13 picks — RB Cadillac Williams and LB Barrett Ruud — and no backups. Two of those picks are with other teams, and nine are out of the NFL.

Guards Davin Joseph and Jeremy Trueblood are the only starters remaining from the 2006 draft. From 11 draft choices, one other is a Bucs backup (WR Maurice Stovall), one is with another team, and seven are out of the league.

The 2007 draft was the Gaines Adams draft. Three starters remain: S Tanard Jackson, LB Quincy Black and S Sabby Piscitelli. Of the 10 picks, four are no longer in the NFL. The 2008 draft netted CB Aqib Talib in the first round. But it produced WR Dexter Jackson as a second-round pick. He was cut in training camp in August.

Without calling them out by name, Glazer placed the blame at the feet of Allen and ex-coach Jon Gruden, who controlled the draft from 2004 to 2008.

"We endured a lot of criticism many years ago in that journey to get (to the Super Bowl in the 2002 season)," Glazer said. "That's fine. We'll do what's best. A lot of people can't handle criticism. A lot of people react to the press. We're used to it, and sometimes that's leadership, to be able to take it on, fight through it and lead."

To be fair, college scouting director Dennis Hickey still is with the club, as are many of the scouts who helped produce those below-average drafts.

Do we want Allen in charge of our draft and our free agent decisions or do we want him to hire someone else to do that? I think I want the latter and I don't want that person to be the head coach too.

I guess we could be concerned, but I just took a look at the Bucs drafts since 2008. Not sure they immediately started hitting it out of the park once Allen and Gruden left. In fact, I think the Bucs first round pick after those guys were fired was Josh Freeman.

The Redskins drafts have been pretty good since he's been here. Does Allen get any credit for that? Did he have more authority over Gruden? I don't really know those answers myself.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------"You can't do epic **** with basic people." - DJax"We’re winning off the field, but we’ve got to start winning on the field." - Bruce Allen

In his press conference this week, Allen practically told the world that Shanahan had not paid any attention to the advice of Morocco Brown when it came to drat time. The man would have to be an idiot to allow himself to be portrayed as guilty of exactly the same fault some time in the future. Brown appears to be respected around the league, so he's the guy who should have the loudest voice in the room.

"I’m never under the assumption that you draft for need. You draft the best available football player on the board. ... Because, in the long run, they are the ones who will help you win the most games." - Scot McCloughan

Irn-Bru wrote:So does he get any credit for some good drafts in DC, or not?

I'd like to get someone in that is more of a real GM/personnel guy but ... it is what it is

Bruce Allen is in charge + a bunch of other guys (the FO, HC, OC, DC, & scouting staff) that are going to have input here - I think these guys will do well for us

I think that the Bruce Allen we have should be given a little more credit than he has recently

P A T I E N C E - The Redskins will improve the product on the field if Dan Snyder just let's Scott & his FO do their jobs Dan needs to stop screwing things up and let Scott get this franchise back together

welch wrote:I think Allen knows what he is doing, and I believe he knows his limitations.

May we remind ourselves that Bruce Allen was fired from Tampa?

May we recall that his main contributions have been as a capologist?

I am convinced that, on a political level, he is a very smart operator. Bringing somebody else in that role at an executive level would take away much of his current power and control. It ain't happening. He will sink or swim listening to hopefully good advice from Brown and Campbell.

The current structure of the FO leaves much to be desired and, most importantly, fails to fix the most important problem since 1999: Dan Snyder and his remaining power to become the final decider and ongoing desire to intervene at various levels of the team decisions and dynamics.

Daniel Snyder has defined incompetence, failure and greed to true Washington Redskins fans for over a decade and a half. Stay away from football operations !!!

Sounds like we have draft by committe and that's the way it should be. One guy might make the final.call but as long as multiple people are looking at different options and presenting their case in the war room.I could care less who "pulls" the trigger.

welch wrote:I think Allen knows what he is doing, and I believe he knows his limitations.

May we remind ourselves that Bruce Allen was fired from Tampa?

May we recall that his main contributions have been as a capologist?

I am convinced that, on a political level, he is a very smart operator. Bringing somebody else in that role at an executive level would take away much of his current power and control. It ain't happening. He will sink or swim listening to hopefully good advice from Brown and Campbell.

The current structure of the FO leaves much to be desired and, most importantly, fails to fix the most important problem since 1999: Dan Snyder and his remaining power to become the final decider and ongoing desire to intervene at various levels of the team decisions and dynamics.

I just don't get this... As long as Allen is aware of his weaknesses, and ensures that he has sound advisors, that's really all that can be asked of any football exec. Brown is extremely well respected in the business... there's every reason to believe that the Scouting department is now a strength...

And, you can't do a damned thing about the owner. Other than the reported relationship with Bob, there is really no indication that Snyder has interfered since the arrival of Shanahan. Why would you continue to wring your hands over this? If he is out of the football business, that's great... but if not, just what the hell are you going to do about it? Stomp your feet? Pout? Burn your McNabb jersey?

welch wrote:I think Allen knows what he is doing, and I believe he knows his limitations.

May we remind ourselves that Bruce Allen was fired from Tampa?

May we recall that his main contributions have been as a capologist?

I am convinced that, on a political level, he is a very smart operator. Bringing somebody else in that role at an executive level would take away much of his current power and control. It ain't happening. He will sink or swim listening to hopefully good advice from Brown and Campbell.

The current structure of the FO leaves much to be desired and, most importantly, fails to fix the most important problem since 1999: Dan Snyder and his remaining power to become the final decider and ongoing desire to intervene at various levels of the team decisions and dynamics.

I just don't get this... As long as Allen is aware of his weaknesses, and ensures that he has sound advisors, that's really all that can be asked of any football exec. Brown is extremely well respected in the business... there's every reason to believe that the Scouting department is now a strength...

And, you can't do a damned thing about the owner. Other than the reported relationship with Bob, there is really no indication that Snyder has interfered since the arrival of Shanahan. Why would you continue to wring your hands over this? If he is out of the football business, that's great... but if not, just what the hell are you going to do about it? Stomp your feet? Pout? Burn your McNabb jersey?

Exactly my thoughts. We may never win another game again. Snyder might burn down the childrens home and pray to Satan. Until this doesn't work out I have to go with it. I think leaning on his scouts where he falls short is what he should do. I wish we had the guru of GMs out there but it is what it is. Until we fail he hasn't earned my scorn yet. Bruce can do things that Mike couldn't. For example and I can't find the article to link it but Josh Wilson was a Mike hire that the scouts and JH said NO!!! What did he do? He hired him anyway. Our scouts are going to hit and miss but it will be done by comity rather than by dictatorship.

cowboykillerzRGiii wrote:Sounds like we have draft by committe and that's the way it should be. One guy might make the final.call but as long as multiple people are looking at different options and presenting their case in the war room.I could care less who "pulls" the trigger.

Nailed it brother!

Plus wasn't it Brown, or perhaps someone else, the guy we hired to help us with last year's draft? Seems to me that Allen knows his limitations (as Welch said), and there's evidence of that based on the guy they brought in last year to help.

Shanahan ignoring advice doesn't surprise me, and now I'm really pointing the finger at him for our failure.

Anyway, finger pointing isn't what I'm getting at here; just that Allen seems to bring in guys around him to make GM decisions collectively. I'd take this any day over one guy making decisions for all (assuming the right team of minds are in the mix).

A board of GMs if you will...

"I'm trying to be as honest as I can; I don't normally do that." -Mike Shanahan

welch wrote:I think Allen knows what he is doing, and I believe he knows his limitations.

May we remind ourselves that Bruce Allen was fired from Tampa?

May we recall that his main contributions have been as a capologist?

I am convinced that, on a political level, he is a very smart operator. Bringing somebody else in that role at an executive level would take away much of his current power and control. It ain't happening. He will sink or swim listening to hopefully good advice from Brown and Campbell.

The current structure of the FO leaves much to be desired and, most importantly, fails to fix the most important problem since 1999: Dan Snyder and his remaining power to become the final decider and ongoing desire to intervene at various levels of the team decisions and dynamics.

I just don't get this... As long as Allen is aware of his weaknesses, and ensures that he has sound advisors, that's really all that can be asked of any football exec. Brown is extremely well respected in the business... there's every reason to believe that the Scouting department is now a strength...

And, you can't do a damned thing about the owner. Other than the reported relationship with Bob, there is really no indication that Snyder has interfered since the arrival of Shanahan. Why would you continue to wring your hands over this? If he is out of the football business, that's great... but if not, just what the hell are you going to do about it? Stomp your feet? Pout? Burn your McNabb jersey?

No disrespect intended towards RIC or anyone else, but I don't get many of the fans frustration about Snyder in his current state. There isn't any evidence of meddling. Having a man crush on RG3 doesn't bother me. In fact, it might be a good thing if the story about RG3 thinking Shanny didn't like him was true; at least he knows someone in charge likes him and he feels welcomed.

With all that's been said about Snyder, he's even resisted the temptation to barge in on press conferences to clear his name...that's consistent with someone who made a decision to stay out and it sticking to that decision.

On the GM topic, I think most of us are just having trouble with Allen's "title". We don't want him gone because of his cap genius, but many don't feel he's a true "GM". As I said in my last post (and others have said before me), as long as Allen is aware of his weaknesses and is bringing in "teammates" who are strong where he is weak, its all good.

Relax good people. We've obviously been living under the Shanny dictatorship for the past 4yrs...HE was being more Dan Snyder than Dan Snyder

"I'm trying to be as honest as I can; I don't normally do that." -Mike Shanahan

Correct. Some have stated that Allen here as basically a guy who handles the contracts & structuring the cap. Morrocco Brown and I believe the other guy's name is Scott Campbell, along with regional scouts will be the ones in charge of making a draft board. I'm sure like all teams, coaches will have input on who they draft, area's of need, etc but based on what has been said, Allen is going to trust the guys who know what they're doing when it comes to evaluating talent and that's Brown & Campbell.

welch wrote:I think Allen knows what he is doing, and I believe he knows his limitations.

There's the key part right there. Following on from that, does he defer to those who have greater expertise in those areas where he is weaker? We shall see - I'm hopeful, but the last 20 years have taught me not to be expectant.

Irn-Bru wrote:So does he get any credit for some good drafts in DC, or not?

There are two questions there:1) Have there been any good drafts in DC in the last four years?2) If there have, does Allen receive any credit?

On the first question, I don't know yet. But I'd describe the drafting as patchy, at best. Some notable major successes such as Trent Williams and Alfred Morris. Some dreadful failures with regard to offensive linemen, or so it would seem.

On the second question, why would he get any credit if it was Shanahan running the entire show?